Professor Dr Pierluigi Nicotera

Research Priorities: Biomedicine, neurodegenerative diseases, molecular toxicology, neural cells
Pierluigi Nicotera is an Italian medical scientist. He studies neurodegeneration, which is the progressive decline of neural cells. Neurodegenerative processes are considered the cause of numerous diseases of the central nervous system.
In his research, Pierluigi Nicotera focuses among other things on neuronal connectivity. Here, synapses – the connections between neural cells – are of special importance as they facilitate the transfer of information in the brain. A loss of synaptic connections in the brain induced by age or illness leads to changes in the brain and therefore to cognitive impairment. Pierluigi Nicotera uses the study of the molecular mechanisms which lead to processes of alteration and degradation to understand the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, or Huntington’s chorea. This approach enabled him and his team to show that, for example during Huntington’s disease, a renewal of the “recycling programme” of synaptic vesicles can prevent the destructive process at certain parts of the synapses (dendrites). Furthermore, he studied both the influence of Calcium-streams and of genetic factors on the preservation of synaptic plasticity.
As the scientific director of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), he also built an Institute at which researchers from ten different sites cooperate and whose structure became a model for similar institutions around the world.
As a researcher and research manager, Pierluigi Nicotera made important contributions to the identification of starting points for the development of new therapies. He aims to preserve neural connectivity and contain the spread of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson.